Menu

Faith Hope and Love

Day: August 15, 2017

“But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.” Jude 1:20-21

Do we understand we have a role to play in this life under the sun as Christ followers? According to this verse we are to 1) build ourselves up in holy faith, 2) pray in the Spirit, 3) keep ourselves in the love of God, and 4) expect the mercy of Christ for eternal life. Are you actively doing these things as a faithful Christ follower?

Two exhortations, in particular, caught my attention. Firstly, we are to build ourselves up. It is no one else’s job to build ourselves up. What a wonderful spiritual family we have indeed when we can call on someone when we are in need!! We must remember, however, it is no one else’s job to build us up continually. So what does building yourself up look like? Definitionally, it has the meaning of ‘building upon‘. Jesus Christ IS our foundation and we build upon that. We must be very careful, however, what we build upon The foundation. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 says, “If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire.”

As you go through your day, consider what you are doing, saying, and allowing yourself to believe and ask yourself if those things ‘build yourself up’ in holy faith? Do they build beautifully upon that valuable foundation so that God would possibly consider your building as prized as gold, silver, or costly stones would be? Or are you doing, saying, and thinking things that are contrary to the firm foundation Jesus laid which we should be mimicking. If it is not a resemblance but something different, it will be like wood, hay, and straw and eventually will be burned up. The quality of what you have done, what you have said, and what you have thought will thus be revealed. You are Divinely Inspired and Victoriously Anointed (DIVA) so let’s be purposeful in EVERYTHING we do, say, and think because it is our job to ‘build ourselves up in holy faith’, beautifully building upon your sacredfoundation.

Secondly, we are to keep ourselves in the love of God. The word ‘keep’ is the Greek word tēreō and means, ‘To guard, to keep watch upon, to watch over protectively, to mark attentively, to heed, to observe practically, to preserve, shield, to keep in custody, to maintain, to keep in a condition. (Mounce)

This is one thing I am picturing. Jesus Christ laid each one of our foundations. We are instructed to build upon it and we are advised how. The enemy would love the opportunity to come along and steal (John 10:10) what you have been ‘building’ and so we are instructed to guard it. We are to attentively keep watch upon it. The enemy knows that “you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5) so he means to do what is required in order to steal what we have been building in order for us to not become a spiritual house able to make spiritual sacrifices to God. Does this speak truth to you?

How will you respond?

∞ When you have powerless thoughts, immediately reject Satan’s lies. Verbally respond by saying, “Get away from me Satan. You have no place in my redeemed life. I am in Christ and Christ is in me. I am no longer enslaved to defeating thoughts.” Inspire yourself to smile when you feel your emotions suggesting you have no reason to. Encourage yourself to pray and praise with a heart bursting with Thanksgiving when your senses suggest you are defeated. Your defeat is a lie; choose to see the Truth instead. The Truth is absolutely, all encompassing, completely overwhelming… JOYFUL! When the hour is dark speak praise and thanksgiving to your Deliverer and Redeemer. He loves you.

∞ Write today’s Scripture verse on a 3×5 card and 1) Commit it to memory, 2) Believe it, 3) Repeat it often. Add notes to make it impactful to you. There is power is repeating God’s word!